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Nancy Van de Vate

Biography

Born in the United States and now living permanently in Vienna, Austria, Nancy Van de Vate is known worldwide for her music in the large forms. She currently teaches music composition at the Institute for European Studies in Vienna. Nancy Van de Vate has also been a faculty member at eleven colleges and universities in the United States and at the Jakarta Conservatory (Yayasan Pendidikan Musik) in Indonesia. Her full-length opera, All Quiet on the Western Front (Im Western Nichts Neues) premiered in Osnabrück, Germany in 2003 and was performed there ten times to great critical acclaim. The same work was included in May 2003 by the New York City Opera in its VOX 2003: Showcasing American Opera series, again to critical acclaim.

Her 26 orchestral works include the well-known Chernobyl, which has been performed in Vienna, Hamburg, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, and in the United States at the Chautauqua Festival and by the Portland (Maine) Symphony Orchestra. A special performance on February 25, 2006 by the Yale Symphony Orchestra, Toshiyuki Shimada, conductor, marked the 20th anniversary of the world's most famous nuclear accident. Chernobyl has been widely broadcast worldwide since its first appearance on compact disc in 1987. Many of Van de Vate's recordings are available for streaming on You Tube.

The composer has also created a large body of solo and chamber music for a wide variety of instruments and ensembles. Among her newest chamber works are String Quartet No. 2, commissioned by the Vienna Mozart Year 2006, and Brass Quintet No. 2: Variations on the "Streets of Laredo," commissioned by the University of Mississippi for an October 2005 festival of her music. Journeys Through the Life and Music of Nancy Van de Vate, a complete biography and extensive anaylsis of her music, written by Laurdella Foulkes-Levy and Burt Levy, was published in 2004 by Scarecrow Press.